Two pools, 10 days of work and over 2 million litres of water

In only 13 days the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships will take place in the new indoor event arena in Copenhagen, Royal Arena. The fantastic transformation from concert venue to swimming arena starts now!

Only a few hours have passed since the never-aging German rock band The Scorpions left the stage at Royal Arena, and the transformation from state of the art concert arena to European Championship swim stadium has begun. In under 10 days the arena will see an incredible change where two new pools will emerge for the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships from December 13-17 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

”We took over Royal Arena this morning at 6am, and our first job was to make the markings of where the competition pool is to be built” says Mads Bang Aaen, the Event Manager for the European Championships. “Now the transformation from world-class concert arena to world-class swim stadium has begun, and in less than 10 day, the first swimmers will start training in the pools, so we will work around the clock to meet this deadline. Around 30 people are building the two pools and around 20 people will build the pooldeck that is elevated more than 2 meters above the original floor.”

Since Metallica blew life into Royal Arena in February with four incredible concerts, the arena has hosted numerous international top music names like Drake and The Weeknd. Now it hosts its first sport event with the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships.

Myrtha Pools will build the swim stadium, and the Italian pool experts bring loads of experience and references to Copenhagen. They have built the swim stadiums for several editions of Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships. In Copenhagen two pools will be constructed – a competition pool and a warm-up pool.

”The competition pool must be very precise” Mads Bang Aaen says. “It has to be exactly 25 metres long and not a centimetre longer or shorter in order to be used for international competitions. When we have built the two pools, a new temporary floor will be built around the pools in a height of over 2 metres from the original floor. Once this is done we will start to fill the pools with water over the next many hours, we need 2 million litres. Lastly a water test will determine if the water quality is high enough for swimming. By Sunday December 10th the two new pools will be ready to welcome the first athletes. This will be an intense and very interesting process but we can’t wait to present a beautiful, state-of-the-art swimming venue for all the spectators, swimmers and viewers around the world.”

38 Danes will take on the rest of the European swim elite

Around 700 swimmers from 45 countries will compete in 40 events. Leading the Danish team is Olympic champion Pernille Blume (50m free, Rio), Olympic bronze medal winners Rikke Moller Pedersen and Mie Nielsen along with Olympian and former European butterfly champion Viktor Bromer and two times Olympian Daniel Skaaning. These are just a few of the impressive Danish swim squad of 38 swimmers that will battle for glory to the delight of the home crowd.

”The LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships on Danish soil is the first sport event that takes place in the magnificent Royal Arena, and it will be five days of fantastic swimming where the Danes will be up against some of the best swimmers in the world, among them the likes of Olympic champions Sarah Sjöström from Sweden, Adam Peaty of Great Britain and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu” Bang Aen added. “We are delighted to see that swim fans from 28 countries have already bought tickets, and over 20 percent of the tickets are actually bought from abroad. This is a high percentage in swimming, so I am sure we will have a great and intense atmosphere at the European Championships.”

The Danish Swimming Federation is hosting the LEN European Short Course Championships 13-17 December 2017 in Copenhagen in cooperation with Sport Event Denmark, Wonderful Copenhagen, Copenhagen Municipality, The Capital Region of Denmark, Hovedstaden’s Swimming Club and The European Swimming Federation, LEN.

Facts on Royal Arena as a swim stadium:
– It takes 10 days to transform Royal Arena into an international swim stadium.

– Two temporary pools will be built in Royal Arena. A pool for competition and a warm up pool. A big carpet will divide the arena.

– The competition pool measures 25 x 26 meters and contains 1.3 million litres of water. The warm up pool is a little smaller and measures 25 x 16 meters and contains 800,000 litres of water.

– The water temperature will be 26 degrees.

– The two pools will be built by the Italian company Myrtha Pools who also builds pools for The Olympic Games and World Championships.

– The arena has a capacity of 6,500 spectators at a time.

Facts about the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships 13-17 December in Copenhagen, Denmark

– 700 swimmers from 45 countries will participate in Copenhagen

– 38 swimmers will represent the host nation Denmark

– The swimmers will compete in 40 events

– So far spectators from 28 different countries have bought tickets for the championships, and over 20 percent of tickets sold are from countries outside Denmark.

– On the five competition days running from Wednesday December 13 to Sunday December 17 the preliminary races will take place in the morning session and semi-finals and finals in the evening session. View the program here

– 500 volunteers from Danish swim clubs will work at the championships

– The European Championships is the first sport event taking place in the multi arena, Royal Arena, that opened in February 2017 and also hosts major concerts.

Tickets and social media:
– Buy tickets at www.ticketmaster.dk/swim
– Read more about the championships on the official website www.euroswim2017.com
– Find the championships on Facebook: www.facebook.com/euroswim2017 and www.instagram.com/euroswim2017